The history of the Chardonnay-Pinot Noir still wine that catapulted Franschhoek ‘s Cabrière Estate to uncharted commercial success began with a fish soup called bouillabaisse. And, of course, with the role of Cabrière’s founder, the legendary Achim von Arnim.
It was sometime in the early 1990’s and Achim had been invited by Freda van der Merwe, then owner of the famous Freda’s Restaurant in Kloof Street, Cape Town, to join a few winemakers and foodies to lunch on her famous bouillabaisse. The only proviso being that each guest bring a bottle of wine to best match her dish. And the winning wine was to be selected as the perfect Bouillabaisse Brother.
The day arrived, and Achim had gotten waylaid at the cellar. Upon realising he had better hot-foot it to Cape Town from Franschhoek – if a journey in a clapped-out Citroën could be called hot-footing – he realised he had not planned a wine to take along. So, in typical Achim fashion, he found a few empty bottles and filled them from the tanks of fermented Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that yet to be sent for secondary bottle-fermentation, as per the way of Cap Classique. For which he and Cabrière were, at the time, most famous.
The rest is predictable, and is history. Achim’s instinctive unlabelled, unbottled blend of lusty young Chardonnay and Pinot Noir trounced the other wines lined-up next to Freda’s bouillabaisse, beating Chablis, Riesling, Sancerre, Provençal rosé and the other assembled numbers to be announced the winning wine.
And thus, the wine’s history as a singular Cabrière offering began, going on to become an ubiquitous Cape wine with a huge following.
To honour its three decades in being, Cabrière last year released a limited-volume bottling Chardonnay Pinot Noir from vintage 2024 of which only 696 bottles were made. The make-up is 78% Chardonnay and 22% Pinot Noir from the property’s own vineyards, both of the mature kind – the Chardonnay sticks were planted in 1983 and the Pinot Noir took root in 1991. The wine was fermented and aged in a single clay amphorae and bottled in a piece of glass heavy enough to cause cramp in Eben Etzebeth’s pouring finger.
The wine is a delight in having breadth and depth, and a truly unique flavour-profile for a white wine. It has a full, generous and cool entry on the palate bearing instant agreeability. Ruby grape-fruit comes to the fore, as well as kumquat and slivers of chilled persimmon laced with lime-juice. There is a shard of stoniness, too, all white and gleaming, ensuring that despite its wallowing expanse of flavour, there is a perky lift of sunny energy.
Due to professional duties, I did not allow this wine to mature, but it is a collector’s item for sure, and an honour to one of the many mark’s Achim and Cabrière have made on the Cape wine industry. And a fine fishing story, to boot.
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Wonderful recollection of Achim von Arnim, whom I knew well.